Feelings Come and Go

Day two hundred seventy

I had a good day with my family yesterday.  It is not always easy to watch conference with the three of them, they get bored easy and start interjecting bits of humor.  How do they come up with this stuff?  Even with their silliness, they somehow get the message from the talks!  I thanked the Lord for great moments like that.  I am grateful for the humor and the spirituality in my home.  It may seem irreverent to some, but somehow it works for us.  Thank you Lord for a great Sabbath Day! 

1 Kings 4-11
The book of 1 Kings goes on chapter after chapter telling of the wisdom and honor given to Solomon and of the tremendous wealth and power that came to the kingdom. It is an amazing account, but then we come to 1 Kings 11.

1 Kings 11:1-5
In 1 Kings 3:1 we were introduced to Solomon's affinity for foreign woman with his marriage to Pharaoh's daughter.  I stated that this would come back to bring about his downfall.  It is in chapter 11 we find out just how bad Solomon's desire for these women got:

• Solomon loved many strange (foreign) women (v 1)
• This was against the commands of God (V 2)
• Solomon flagrantly disobeyed the Lord - 700 hundred wives, princesses, and 300 hundred concubines (v 3)
• These women turned Solomon's heart away from God (v 4) 
• Solomon started worshipping other Gods (v 5)
• Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord (v 6)
• He built places to worship these other Gods (v 7)
• He did this for each of his wives (v 8)

For someone who was so wise, he really missed the boat on this one!  How could he think that 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines wouldn't stir up some trouble?  Was his desire for woman so strong that his wisdom was blinded?  How did he not see the wrong in his choices?

These are questions we should ask ourselves.  How do we not see the trouble coming?  Do we let our desires control our actions and set aside our wisdom?  How do we miss the wrong in our choices?

It is easy to sit back and look at Solomon's mistakes and think that he must have been stupid not to see it coming, but if we were to take a hard look at our own lives I bet we would find some situations when we let our desires blind us.  I know I have.  Luckily, it did not end as tragically as Solomon's story.  I was able to see my mistakes, repent and move forward.  I am very grateful for that blessing in my life.

1 Kings 11:9-11 
Solomon made two great mistakes that brought tragedy to him and to the kingdom.  First, he did not use the wisdom of God in his own personal life. Then, he quit depending on God.

He had started out so good and faithful.  His relationship with God seemed so strong and unbreakable.  God had even appeared to him twice (1 Kings 3:5; 9:2).  But Solomon had forgotten over the years the love that he had for the Lord at the beginning and now he had the anger of the Lord to deal with (v 9).  The Lord had kept his part of the covenant, it was Solomon who broke the covenant, and now he was going to lose his kingdom (v 11).

C.S. Lewis said, "Though our feelings come and go, God's love for us does not."  

I think forgetting has a lot to do with our ability to fight temptation.  What if we could hold on to the child-like faith we felt when we first started our relationship with God? Do you remember the feelings you had when you first felt His love and you loved Him back?  If we could hold on to those feelings and memories would it make it easier to walk in daily dependence on Him?

I think that is the key to preventing such tragic events in our own lives, to keep those feelings of love and simple faith alive within us each day.  To seek those feelings of joy in serving the Lord and receiving the blessings He wants to pour down upon us.  It is then that we can count on His power to be with us and guide us throughout the day.

It is my prayer that each of us will remember our moments of love and joy with the Lord and keep them in our hearts so that we might find ourselves worthy of the blessings He has for us, instead of on the side of His anger.  May we be more Christ-like in our love of God and love Him like He loves us!